Hi, I hope this is in the right spot. Wasn't sure if it should be here or on the php board but here felt like it made more sense.

I used to have a working method so that I could put in <img src=rotate.php>, and that .php file had a list of four image addresses in it. Whenever someone loaded the page, it would select a random one and it would go. It worked for me about.. four or five years ago? It would work both when I went to rotate.php directly, or when I was looking at a page that had it as an image source.

CODE

<?php

header("Content-Type: image/jpeg");

$sigs = array();

$sigs[0] = "pic1.jpg";

$sigs[1] = "pic2.jpg";

$sigs[2] = "pic3.jpg";

$sigs[3] = "pic4.jpg";

mt_srand((double)microtime()*1000000);

$sig = $sigs[mt_rand(0, count($sigs)-1)];

readfile($sig);

?>

Now though, it doesn't work. If I go to rotate.php in Chrome it is showing the above code rather than running the function, and if I go to a page that has it as an image source it just shows a broken image. I'm like, really confused why it just stopped working. It's not working at the place I had it uploaded, and it's not working locally just on my computer either.

So I know this seems like a .php issue and maybe it is, but posting it here in HTML cause what I need is <img src=something> to rotate through a list, and don't particularly care if it's via a php file or something else.

Any advice on how to do this would be much appreciated. I tried Googling it and I think the terms I was looking for (everything I put as the Topic Description) have too many uses, and I don't even know what language I really want to find the answer in.

It sounds like your server isn't processing the PHP code at all. Is your server configured to process *.php files for PHP code?

I'm not sure, it's not my server. I asked the Webmistress first when it stopped working and she said she hadn't done any changes to how .php was run. Also, my computer hasn't changed in that time and that doesn't explain why it's not working locally either? I tried both Chrome and IE and they both do the same thing.

Do you run it through a server on your local computer? Otherwise it cannot work.

Try some other PHP to find out if PHP is working on your server. You could use phpinfo() which will get you a lot of information about the PHP configuration on your server - if it works.

Just put this in a document, name it something.php, upload it and go to it with your browser.

CODE

<?phpphpinfo();?>

It also just shows up at plain text. I know for sure I am not running a local sever on my computer. I'm just really confused why ~2 years ago I didn't need to? I opened it and it worked. It's the same, unedited set of files that are now behaving differently. Did they update it to need a local server to fix a security exploit or something?

Probably gonna get XAMPP so I can get the end result I want, but I'm really confused why I lost a feature that used to function just fine.

I used to have a working method so that I could put in <img src=rotate.php>, and that .php file had a list of four image addresses in it. Whenever someone loaded the page, it would select a random one and it would go.

(Just a sidenote: don't you need to use that old querystring trick on such URLs in order to prevent caching?)

QUOTE

It worked for me about.. four or five years ago?

What has happened with the online site since then, did you remove it?

QUOTE(DeDraconis @ May 15 2018, 07:44 PM)

I know for sure I am not running a local sever on my computer. I'm just really confused why ~2 years ago I didn't need to?...Did they update it to need a local server to fix a security exploit or something?

No, pandy meant that in order to run PHP offline on your own computer, you also need a local server (such as XAMPP). A site at your web host is run from their online server, which should support PHP (especially if they say so).

I used to have a working method so that I could put in <img src=rotate.php>, and that .php file had a list of four image addresses in it. Whenever someone loaded the page, it would select a random one and it would go.

(Just a sidenote: don't you need to use that old querystring trick on such URLs in order to prevent caching?)

QUOTE

It worked for me about.. four or five years ago?

What has happened with the online site since then, did you remove it?

QUOTE(DeDraconis @ May 15 2018, 07:44 PM)

I know for sure I am not running a local sever on my computer. I'm just really confused why ~2 years ago I didn't need to?...Did they update it to need a local server to fix a security exploit or something?

No, pandy meant that in order to run PHP offline on your own computer, you also need a local server (such as XAMPP). A site at your web host is run from their online server, which should support PHP (especially if they say so).

I misspoke on my last message, it was ~4-5 years ago like I said at first. ~2years ago I hadn't been messing with it.

What I'm saying is, the same file, on the same computer, used to work offline just fine without me having to load it onto the site I was using. And I wasn't running any .php software/localhost. The only thing I can think of that might have changed is how my browser reads it, cause I do keep Chrome up to date (and I assume IE updates itself when I'm not looking). At this point I'm not confused about how to get it to work, I'm just wondering what changed that makes it so I need to, and why?

That shouldn't happen. Did you put something else in the file, or are you using some .htaccess directive that might be causing problems with PHP files? Otherwise my guess is that the server is misconfigured somehow, just like the message says. Ask the webhost support about it.